RI DEM issuing fines for illegal cesspools

For the first time since the state passed a law making certain cesspools illegal, property owners have begun receiving violation notices carrying fines of up to $2,500 for not eliminating the antiquated...

For the first time since the state passed a law making certain cesspools illegal, property owners have begun receiving violation notices carrying fines of up to $2,500 for not eliminating the antiquated sewage receptacles.

The state Department of Environmental Management announced on Tuesday that, since March, it has issued 29 notices. Another 20 notices are expected to be issued each month until an estimated 300 illegal cesspools are taken out of service.

What’s prompting the unprecedented enforcement action is a deadline set by the Cesspool Phaseout Act of 2007. It requires the elimination by January 2014 of all cesspools within 200 feet of a public well, drinking water reservoir or tidal coastline.

“They should not be surprised,” said David Chopy, chief of the office of compliance and inspection.

His office, he said, attempted to send at least several rounds of informal notices to property owners informing them in advance of the deadline. The first batch of violation notices sent out this spring, he said, intentionally included the most threatening properties — 14 where cesspools could potentially affect drinking water.

Cesspools, said Chopy, are “just an avenue for untreated wastewater to get into the groundwater and then into the surface.”

In 1968, the state banned cesspools, underground chambers that simply collect solids and allow liquids to drain out.

DEM and environmentalists have sought to require the elimination of all cesspools in Rhode Island. A proposal to require their removal upon the sale of a property, which is the law in Massachusetts, is back at the State House this year. But once again, real estate industry leaders have spoken out against it.

Meanwhile, the DEM is enforcing the narrower law that was passed in 2007. It requires property owners with cesspools to either tie into municipal sewers or install modern onsite wastewater treatment systems.

While low-interest loans are available through some eligible communities, the remedies can still be costly. A conventional septic system can cost up to $15,000 while those designed for small parcels near the water can run into the tens of thousands of dollars, Chopy said.

As a result, he said, about 50 cesspool owners have claimed financial hardship and are seeking a deadline extension, as allowed by the law. Some won’t have to comply because it has been determined that they are in areas to be sewered.

DEM is using its new expedited notice system for cesspool violators. It requires those issued the notice to respond within 60 days and subjects them to lesser penalties, of up to $2,500. There is no opportunity to request a hearing to challenge the citation.

For those who fail to respond, DEM will then issue its more traditional notice of violations, which carry steeper penalties and offer an appeals process.

“Over the past three years, DEM has made numerous efforts to make property owners aware of the Cesspool Act and the deadline for compliance,” DEM Director Janet Coit said in a statement. “While the Department has a responsibility to enforce the Cesspool Act, we also recognize the financial burden this has on property owners. Issuing these notices is a way that we hope will get property owners into compliance without imposing onerous penalties.”

Chopy added, “We’re hopeful that if the word gets out DEM will start to issue fines that a number of people will come out and do what we’ve been telling them to do for the past few years.”